The Milestone

Most people are good people, but sometimes even good people break the rules. It's hard to resist the want of something when you have been yearning for it for a while. Thomas Rock experiences this when his dad would't let him drive. What will Thomas do, will he break the law and drive without a licence?

The loud furious honking along with the rowdy sounds of the sirens creating traffic in downtown Toronto. Tomas Rock was stuck in traffic with his dad, Dave Rock, which was the last person he wanted to be with. Thomas was on his way to the library and he was running late for his class at the library. Thomas’ dad was lectured, “Ah, look at all these crazy people thinking they’re extremely amazing at driving, there has been two accidents here in just an hour. Honestly, people need to learn how to drive.” This made Thomas feel anxious because he turned 19 last month and all his friends already have their licenses, for example his friend Kevin who is 20 now. Unfortunately, Thomas’s dad is too strict to let him learn to drive. “You know dad, not every single person in the world is a horrendous driver. I bet that I could be a decent driver since you’re an amazing driver. I am also your son so I have your genes of good driving,” Thomas mumbled. “I don’t want to hear it, okay. You will learn to drive when you graduate college. Learning to drive is not a necessity right now because I drive you,” Mr. Rock discouraged. “Why can’t you just understand?” Thomas murmured under his breath. Mr. Rock didn’t hear this though because of a blaring car that flashed right next to them. Thomas had a sigh of relief when Mr. Rock didn’t respond because if Mr. Rock heard him, then he would be getting yelled at for the rest of the ride. Staying quiet was a decent decision made by Thomas, it was only ten more minutes until he got to the library and he was counting down every single second from his phone with google maps pulled up for a resource. They finally reached the library. Thomas swiftly gathered his things and shuffled out of the car. “Good luck on your test,” Thomas’ dad said in a monotone voice. This made Thomas feel apprehensive because he knew that there wasn’t any test happening that he needed to study for. Thomas is learning how to drive from his friend Kevin and Kevin is waiting in the back of the library. Thomas glided through the main doors, slipped into the library, and strolled out the computer door into the back parking lot so nothing looks suspicious. Thomas met up with Kevin and they did their little awkward laugh that they do every time they see each other. They have been doing this since they were 10. Kevin is a year older than Thomas, so Kevin is teaching Thomas how to drive. After they did their little awkward laugh Kevin spoke “Okay, hop in, want to go to Brampton? It’s only a half hour drive there and I can drive to Brampton. You can practice driving in a neighborhood that no one is in.” Thomas replied, “Sounds good, let’s go now.” Thomas and Kevin both got into the beaten down, ancient blue Chevrolet. They sped off onto the highway and abruptly and cautiously slowed down when they hit traffic. They spent about 20 minuted on the highway, then they turned into Brampton and entered into a small neighborhood that no one was in. “Are you sure we should be doing this?” Thomas asked. Kevin replied, “You’ll be fine, your just driving around a neighborhood.” Kevin pulled up to the side of a house, Thomas took Kevin’s spot as the driver. Thomas got into the car shakily and slowly put the keys into the ignition. “I got this . . . I can do this . . . I’m 19 years old, I should be able to drive a car by now,” Thomas spoke to himself. Thomas was giving himself a pep talk as he slowly backed up to get into the right spot to be able to drive. Thomas let go of the brake and let the car do the driving itself. Then Tomas applied minimal pressure on the gas going about 7 miles for hour. As Thomas was slowly gaining speed, he was gradually gaining confidence. “ Yes, I’m doing it, I can drive now. Wow. Yes, I’m actually driving!” Thomas exclaimed. A shot of adrenaline pumped from his heart, to his arms and legs and out through his fingers and toes. He was on edge and was so tense that he couldn’t move was frozen. “Just make sure you watch out for that deer!” Kevin hollered abruptly. Thomas couldn't process what Kevin was saying that quickly, so Thomas started swerving around everywhere. Boom! The deer let out a gasping wheeze and blood splattered everywhere. The car crashed into the deer and the imploded. A huge dent is in the front of the car, glass shards from the headlights and windows scattered everywhere. The airbags bust out and the car’s alarm sirens went off indicating an accident has happened. “What did you just do!” Kevin screamed. Thomas replied in a stuttered voice, “ I don’t know . . . I was just, was just . . . just driving. I thought I had it, I really did. Then that deer came out of nowhere. Oh no I committed a crime and I’m going to jail. I shouldn't go to jail I’m only 19 and I didn’t do anything wrong. Wait, oh no I did do something wrong, I drove without a license or a G1 or G2. What are we going to do.” “Stop for a second and calm down okay. We will be fine, don’t panic. First we have to clean up the blood and glass,” Kevin declared as the blood dripped down his arm from the glass shard of the windshield. “What will we do about the car though, what will people say,” Thomas worried. Kevin responded “Don’t worry we will just dump the garbage into someone else's trash and say that I crashed the car on accident when I was taking you to see your tutor after you studied. Everything will be fine.” This made Thomas calm down a bit. However, Thomas was not a good liar so the thought of lying made him feel anxious. Thomas decided to call his dad so he seemed responsible and told him that Kevin crashed the car while he was dropping him off at his tutors house. Mr. Rock arrived to the “crime scene” twenty minutes later because it was almost dusk and rush hour began to settle down. As Mr. Rock was on his way, the boys picked up the glass pieces everywhere .Then went to a far off house that couldn’t witness the crime in front of their house. Later they asked for a paper towel roll and cleaned up the blood everywhere. However they left the deer there to have Mr. Rock handle later on. Mr. Rock finally reached them and was in shock as he lifted up his eyebrow and crossed his arms. “Where is this tutors house, I don’t remember signing you up for some tutor. If I didn’t sign you up for some tutor, then this crash wouldn’t have happened.” Mr. Rock suspected. “Um . . . I um signed up um . . last week for . . . um history. He is very credible and um he lives in Brampton and um . . . I had a study session with him after um I studied myself,” Thomas muttered. “Are you sure about this, I never remember you telling me about him. Let me call him what’s his number. Don’t worry about the deer I will take care of it, accidents happen” Mr. Rock reasoned. Thomas felt as if he got away with his crash. Thomas was about to give his dad an old tutor’s number. Then Thomas pondered in his head if he should really consider lying even more and going down a deep tunnel of guilt. Thomas couldn’t bear the thought of all the stress, so he confessed, “Okay fine, there is no tutor that lives in Brampton and there is no crash that Kevin caused. I was the one driving, I was the one that crashed the car, I was the one who killed a deer. I’m such a bad person and I’m going to jail I’m so so sorry dad” Mr. Rock stated, “I am very disappointed in you. First, you tried to lie to me saying that you were studying. You were doing who knows what, driving around, crashing cars, and killing deers. That’s it, no more driving until you're 24 and that is final.” Thomas could feel his courage sinking down lower than the Titanic when he heard his dad utter those words. However, Thomas knew that sometimes his dad didn’t always keep his word so he thought that if he just did really good in school, then he could possibly get his licence when he is 20. That is what happen, Thomas put a plethora of perseverance in his school work to impress his dad. Thomas got a 95% and above in every class, even his toughest classes. Mr. Rock was so impressed by how Thomas managed to get the grades he did in all tough courses, that he let Thomas go into driving school 6 months later. This made Thomas feel ecstatic on his achievement that he did amazing on his driving test and he passed with flying colors.

Subscribe

Get Teen Ink’s 48-page monthly print edition. Written by teens since 1989.